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Monday, 31 October 2011

Born this day

Natalie Clifford Barney (1876 –1972) US
Playwright, poet and novelist who lived as an expatriate in Paris. She was openly lesbian and began publishing love poems to women under her own name as early as 1900, considering scandal as "the best way of getting rid of nuisances" (meaning heterosexual attention from young males).

Napoleon Lapathiotis (1888 –1944) Greek
Poet – Died 7th January

Ethel Waters(1896 – 1977) US
Singer / Actress –

Craig Rodwell (1940 – 1993) US
Activist

David Ogden Stiers(1942 – ) US
Actor / Musician

Bruce Bawer(1956 – ) US
Literary Critic / Author / Poet

Frank Bruni(1964 – ) US Food
Critic

Gordon Sloan(1972 – 2007 ) Australian
Reality TV [ Big Brother]

Inka Grings (1978 – ) German
Football

Adam Bouska( 1983 – ) US
Photographer

Brent Corrigan(1986 – ) US
Model / Porn / Actor

Died this day

Georgi Partsalev(1925 -1989) Bulgarian
Actor

Marcel Carne(1906 - 1996) French
Director

Lee Calvin Yeomans (1938 - 2001) US
Playwright

Sodomy Laws in History, October 31

1923 — The Indiana Supreme Court rules that cunnilingus of a female under the age of 21 is outlawed by the state’s sodomy law. The Court considers cunnilingus to be a form of masturbation as described in the law.

1955 — The South Carolina Supreme Court rules that cunnilingus does not violate the state’s "buggery" law.

1955 — The "Boys of Boise" affair begins. Starting with the arrest of four men for sexual relations with male teenagers who are prostitutes, it is blown into a situation in which Boise is called a mecca where Gay men can find boys. Begun by a group of right-wing politicians to shake the moderate political establishment, the issue is inflamed by the Idaho Daily Statesman and Time magazine. As a result of the hysteria, a city councilman is defeated for reelection and a West Point cadet from Idaho is dismissed. A 1965 investigation reveals the incident to be based on outright lies.

1956 — A California appellate court bans questions in an oral copulation case as to the defendant’s sexual orientation.

1974 — A federal court upholds the constitutionality of the Florida sodomy law.

1980 — A California appellate court upholds the conviction of a man for masturbating in the presence of an undercover police officer in a public restroom over the contention that, since the officer did not appear to be offended, he should be acquitted.

Born this day:

Oscar winning Spanish cinematographer. One of the highest appraised contemporary cinematographers, "Almendros was an artist of deep integrity, who believed the most beautiful light was natural light......"
Almendros was the cinematographer for the John Lennon documentary, Imagine: John Lennon (1988), directed by Andrew Solt.
In his later years, Almendros co-directed two documentaries about the human rights situation in Cuba, Mauvaise Conduite (1984) (Improper Conduct) about the persecution of gay people in Cuba, and Nadie escuchaba (Nobody Was Listening) about the arrest, imprisonment, and torture of former comrades of Fidel Castro. Almendros died at the age of 61 of AIDS-related lymphoma.

Canadian novelist and playwright. His writing, typical of the Southern Ontario Gothic genre, was heavily influenced by Jungian psychology, and mental illness, gender and sexuality were frequent recurring themes in his work. He publicly mentioned his homosexuality, passingly and perhaps for the first time, on a broadcast of the programme The Shulman File in the 1970s.

Academy Award-nominated American documentary filmmaker. His work combines the art of the visual medium with an investigation of social issues, examining topics such as Asian American history and identity, and gay oppression.
Rex Harrington (1962 – ) Canadian Ballet dancer.

Canadian ballet dancer. In 2000, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2005, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. In 2006, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by York University and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

American film and television actor. Plotnick is an openly gay actor, best known for performances on Ellen, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as the voice of Xandir on Drawn Together, and his drag persona, "Evie Harris" in Girls Will Be Girls.

Died this day:

Mexican leading man actor in Hollywood in the early 20th century. He was the next male "Sex Symbol" after the death of Rudolph Valentino. Novarro had been troubled all his life as a result of his conflicting views over his Roman Catholic religion and his homosexuality, and his life-long struggle with alcoholism is often traced to these issues. Novarro was the victim of a violent extortion attempt which resulted in his death.

Gay barman, who was manager at the Admiral Duncan pub. He survived the nail bomb attack on the pub in 1999, but five years later in 2004, he was killed in a late night assault, which may have been prompted by homophobia, by a group of teenagers outside Waterloo station.

Sodomy Laws in History, October 30

1861 — Nevada recognizes common-law crimes, making sodomy a crime with a compulsory sentence of life imprisonment.

1942 — The Nebraska Supreme Court rules that fellatio is outlawed by the state’s law prohibiting "carnal copulation in any opening of the body, except sexual parts."

1944 — The Arizona Supreme Court upholds the sodomy conviction of a man over his claims of privacy rights, the first to be raised in the United States.

1968 — The North Carolina Supreme Court overturns a sodomy conviction because the indictment didn’t name the "victim."

Saturday, 29 October 2011

Born this day

Canadian playwright, novelist, actor and broadcast journalist, who won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for her first novel, Fall on Your Knees,and has received the Governor General's Award for Literary Merit. She is married to the playwright and theatre director Alisa Palmer

Film director, producer, and screenwriter most famous for her debut feature, the lesbian love story, Claire of the Moon (1992).
In 2004, POWER UP! named Conn one of the top ten gay women in show business.

Died this day

French musician and burlesque poet, part of a group of "free spirits" around the philosopher Pierre Gassendi, which also included Cyrano de Bergerac, Tristan l'Hermite, Saint-Amant, Paul Scarron, and Molière. It has been suggested that d'Assoucy was for a time Cyrano's lover, although they later fell out, and attacked each other with their pens.

Successful homosexual theatre director, film director and producer based in New York, who was joined in lavender marriages to actress Estelle Winwood, and then to actress Katharine Cornell--herself a lesbian—for forty years.

Born this day:

American portrait and genre painter born in San Francisco, California, United States. She is perhaps best known for her portraits of famous women including Rosa Bonheur and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. As a girl, Anna had been given a "Rosa" doll, styled after the French animal painter Rosa Bonheur -- so famous at the time that dolls were made in her image. From early childhood, Anna had been fascinated and inspired by the woman artist.Intent on painting Bonheur's portrait, she met Rosa Bonheur on October 15, 1889, under the pretext of being the interpreter for a horse dealer. The two women were soon living together at Bonheur's estate in Thomery, near Fontainebleau, and their relationship endured until Bonheur's death in 1899.

Irish-born British figurative painter known for his bold, austere, graphic and emotionally raw imagery. Despite Margaret Thatcher having famously described him as "that man who paints those dreadful pictures", he was the subject of two major Tate retrospectives during his lifetime and received a third in 2008.

Born in Hamburg, Germany to an American father and a German mother, Lange was imprisoned by the Nazis in 1935 and again in 1937 for the then crime of homosexuality. After the war, he lost his job with a bank when his employers learnt of his convictions.

Originally a teacher of religion, Capiau later became a popular radio presenter and Television host of popular game shows. For years he maintained strict silence over his sexuality, but came out unequivocally in magazine interview in 2003. In 2006, he stood as a candidate for local council elections.

Poet, painter, and activist Fran Winant was one of the early participants in the Stonewall-inspired gay rights movement of the 1970s. Through her poetry and visual art, she helped define the role and sensibility of lesbians in the contexts of gay liberation and radical feminism, especially during the 1970s and early 1980s.

Dutch television presenter, and columnist for the Dutch magazine "Gay Krant".

Died this day:

American film director, art director, andcostume designer. Though married, Leisen was reported to be gay or bisexual. According to Carolyn Roos, Leisen's long time business manager's daughter, he had a very long relationship with dancer/actor/choreographer Billy Daniel up until the 1950's.

American historian, political activist, advocate for social, environmental and economic justice. In 1987, he became the first openly gay elected official in North Carolina, when he was elected to the town council of Chapel Hill.

Sodomy Laws in History, October 28th

1824 — French historian Astolphe de Custine is beaten by soldiers he solicited. He reluctantly files charges against them.

1864 — A trial court in Utah dismisses the sodomy charge against a man because Utah has no sodomy law. Later that day, the man, Frederick Jones, is murdered (apparently by his partner’s father) but the murderer is released due to a lack of witnesses.

1867 — A Cleveland newspaper reports that a man who sexually assaulted a boy was provided only with "lodging for the night."

1971 — The Oregon Medical Board gives a Gay physician 10 years probation that includes never having sex and not treating any Gay or Lesbian patients. A court later overturns these restrictions.

BornThis Day:

American gay rights activist, writer and humanities humanist. In 1961, Smith started the Variety Recording Studio, a major independent company off Broadway, New York City, with his business partner and longtime companion Fernando Rodolfo de Jesus Vargas Zamora. Smith ran the company for almost thirty years (1961–90).In 1969, Smith participated in the Stonewall riots.

"Larry Townsend" was the pseudonym of the writer 'Bud' Bernhardt of dozens of books, including Run Little Leather Boy (1970) and The Leatherman's Handbook (1972)at pioneer erotic presses such as Greenleaf Classics and the Other Traveler imprint of Olympia Press

Norwegian author, teacher, and feminist writer. Her most famous novel is Egalias døtre ("The Daughters of Egalia"), which was published in 1977 in Norway. In the novel the female is defined as the normal and the male as the abnormal, subjugated sex. All words that are normally in masculine form are given in a feminine form, and vice versa.

She was a board member of the Norway's first association for homosexual people Forbundet av 1948, the precursor to the Norwegian National Association for Lesbian and Gay Liberation.

Brooklyn based artist working mainly in video and performance. She is represented by Reena Spaulings Fine Art. Hardy is one of the founding editors of LTTR, a radical genderqueer, lesbian-feminist art collective and journal.

English comedy actor, best known from the "Carry on " series, but his career also encompassed the theatre (as both actor and director), the cinema (where he regularly appeared supporting Will Hay in the 1930s and 40s and films such as The Ghost of St Michaels),and television.

Radioman Petty Officer Third Class in the United States Navy who was murdered for being gay. He was killed in a public toilet in Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan by shipmate Terry M. Helvey, who acted with the aid of an accomplice, Charles Vins, in what Esquire called a "brutal murder". The case became synonymous with the gays in the military debate that had been brewing in the United States culminating in the "Don't ask, don't tell" bill.

Sodomy in History, October 27

1910 — The Maine Supreme Court rules that there are no common-law crimes in the state.

1955 — A California appellate court upholds the oral copulation conviction of a man who tried to bribe the arresting police officer not to arrest him.

1959 — A New York appellate court overturns the disorderly conduct conviction of a man who thrust his erect penis at police, because there was no breach of the peace.

1969— The Michigan Court of Appeals upholds the sodomy conviction of a man even though the trial judge believed much of the testimony against him was untrue.

Multi-instrumentalist, composer, and one of the founding members of the The B-52s. Originally the band's drummer, Strickland switched to guitar after the death of guitarist Ricky Wilson in 1985. Strickland also plays keyboards and bass guitar on many of The B-52s recordings, and has occasionally provided backing vocals

Canadian politician and urban issues advocate. He served as the 41st Mayor of Winnipeg, Manitoba from 1998 to 2004, and was the first openly gay mayor of a large North American city. He subsequently moved to Toronto, Ontario, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Toronto Centre in 2010. In August 2010, he was appointed to the provincial cabinet as Minister of Research and Innovation. Murray was re-elected in October 2011, and appointed Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities.

Canadian refugee and immigration lawyer, and human rights activist on issues including gender equality, sexual orientation, and progressive Islam. He was the New Democratic Party's candidate for the House of Commons in the riding of Toronto Centre in a March 17, 2008 by-election. Khaki came in second with 13.8% of the vote.

Died this Day:

Mabel Hampton (1902 - 1989),US.
American lesbian activist, a dancer during the Harlem Renaissance, and a philanthropist for both black and lesbian/gay organizations.

California-based writer, cartoonist and printer, who died of breast cancer.

Sodomy in History, October 26

1885 — The first reported court case under the 1879 Pennsylvania fellatio statute results in a conviction being overturned and a new trial ordered to determine if the "victim" was actually an accomplice.

Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Born this day:

Friedrich Heinrich Karl "Fritz" Haarmann, also known as the Butcher of Hanover and the Vampire of Hanover, was a German serial killer who is believed to have been responsible for the murder of 27 boys and young men between 1918 and 1924. He was convicted, found guilty of 24 murders and executed.

American democratic socialist and pacifist activist who described himself as "a peace movement bureaucrat" during his 40-year career with Liberation magazine and the War Resisters League. He was the first openly gay man to run for President of the United States.

Fenton Johnson ( ? – )
Award - winning US Author of "Geography of the Heart" and and "Keeping Faith: A Skeptic’s Journey among Christian and Buddhist Monks", as well as two novels,"Crossing the River" and "Scissors, Paper, Rock".

Openly lesbian professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour. She made cameo appearances in the Star Trek film Generations that was released in 1994, and in "The Chute", the third episode of the 1995 series Star Trek: Voyager.

A guitarist, tenor saxophonist, pianist and melodica stylist, Krishna devotee, and a legend of New York City avant-garde jazz. Despite his much-admired technical virtuosity and unmatched dedication, the Bedford Stuyvesant-born multi-instrumentalist was unable to score a recording contract before succumbing to AIDS-related illness at the age of 32.

Canadian/British filmmaker, former advertising executive, and now a film director and producer most known for his documentary "Elton John: Tantrums & Tiaras". He is the civil partner of British entertainer Elton John.

American country music artist and, starting in 2010, gay rights activist. On the strength of her debut album in 1994, the Academy of Country Music (ACM) named her Top New Female Vocalist in 1995. In May 2010, Wright became the first major country music performer to publicly come out as gay, citing among her reasons a concern with bullying and hate crimes toward gays, particularly gay teenagers, and the damage to her life caused by "lying and hiding".

Virgil Fox (1912 - 1980 )
American organist, known especially for his flamboyant "Heavy Organ" concerts of the music of Bach. These events appealed to audiences in the 1970s who were more familiar with rock 'n' roll music and were staged complete with light shows.

Sodomy in History, October 25

1917 — An Oklahoma appellate court rules that fellatio is a "crime against nature."

1966 — In Columbus, a dentist begins a 3½-year battle with the state of Ohio over consensual sodomy charges. After courts continue to dismiss the charges, the state finally gives up its prosecution efforts in 1970.

1973 — The California Supreme Court upholds the removal of Judge Leland Geiler for prodding a man with a dildo.

Sunday, 23 October 2011

Born this day:

Sarah BernhardtFrench stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas. She developed a reputation as a serious dramatic actress, earning the nickname "The Divine Sarah".

Jean Acker (1893 - 1978)
American film actress with a career dating from the silent film era through the 1950s. She was perhaps best known as the estranged wife of silent film star Rudolph Valentino. After the wedding, Acker quickly had regrets and locked him out of their hotel bedroom on their wedding night.[2][3] The marriage was reportedly never consummated.

Lilian Tashman (1896 – 1934)
Brooklyn-born Jewish American vaudeville, Broadway, and film actress. Tashman was best known for her supporting roles as tongue-in-cheek villainesses and the bitchy 'other woman'.

Paul Rudolph 1918 – 1997
American architect and the dean of the Yale School of Architecture for six years, known for use of concrete and highly complex floor plans. His most famous work is the Yale Art and Architecture Building (A&A Building), a spatially complex Brutalist concrete structure.
American architect and the dean of the Yale School of Architecture for six years, known for use of concrete and highly complex floor plans. His most famous work is the Yale Art and Architecture Building (A&A Building), a spatially complex Brutalist concrete structure.

Ned Rorem (1923 – )
Pulitzer prize-winning American composer and diarist. He is best known and most praised for his song settings. He has also achieved literary prominence by publishing a series of diaries that include candid descriptions of homosexual love affairs and relationships.

writer and critic.

Manos Hatzidakis (1925 – 1994)
Greek composer and theorist of the Greek music. He was also one of the main prime movers of the "Éntekhno" song (along with Mikis Theodorakis). In 1960 he received an Academy Award for Best Original Song for his Song "Never on a Sunday" from the film of the same name.

Bella Darvi (1928 – 1971)
Polish-born French actress.

Maggi Hambling (1945 –)
English painter and sculptor. Perhaps her best known public works are a memorial to Oscar Wilde in central London and Scallop, a 4 metre high steel sculpture of two interlocking scallop shells on Aldeburgh beach dedicated to Benjamin Britten.

Hambling is openly lesbian and her choice of subjects for portraits over the years has included many other openly gay people, such as Derek Jarman, George Melly, Stephen Fry and Quentin Crisp.

Michael Rupert (1951 – )
American actor, singer, director and composer.Cole Tucker (1953 – )Actor in gay pornography, who started making appearances in gay pornography in 1996 at the late age of 43

Augusten Burroughs (1965 –)
American writer known for his New York Times bestselling memoir Running with Scissors (2002).He is openly gay, and has spoken freely of his life with (former) partner Dennis Pilsits, and of his support for gay marriage.

Matthew Williamson (1971 – )
English fashion designer. His collections often have an Indian influence, perhaps related to the time Williamson spent working in India for the clothing store Monsoon. He counts celebrities such as Björk, Cat Deeley, Will Buckhurst, Sienna Miller, Kelis, Jade Jagger and Plum Sykes amongst his friends.

Kye Allums is the first openly transgender athlete to play NCAA Division I college basketball. Allums was a star shooting guard on the George Washington University (GWU) women’s basketball team.

Died this day:

Charles Demuth
An American watercolorist who turned to oils late in his career, developing a style of painting known as Precisionism. He was also noted for some frankly homoerotic watercolours, which he circulated privately.

Christian Dior (1905 - 1957)
French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, also called Christian Dior.

Andrew Kopkind (1935 - 1994)
American journalist. He was renowned for his reporting during the tumultuous years of the late 1960s; he wrote about the anti-Vietnam War protests, American Civil Rights Movement, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Students for a Democratic Society, the Black Panther Party, the Weathermen, President Johnson's "Great Society" initiatives, and California gubernatorial campaign of Ronald Reagan.

In the early 1970s he and his long-time companion, John Scagliotti, hosted the "Lavender Hour," the first commercial gay/lesbian radio show

Sodomy in History, October 23

1697 — Massachusetts' sodomy law refers to sodomy as "contrary to the very light of nature."

1762 — English sailors Martin Billin and James Bryan are acquitted of sodomy even though a witness testifies against them.

1880 — A medical journal publishes an article, "Notes upon Sodomy," which claims that men who engage in sodomy have a different type of penis from those who don’t.

1919 — The New Mexico Supreme Court rules that repeal of a statute in derogation of the common law revives the common-law provision. Since the state recognizes common-law crimes, this means that repeal of the sodomy law will not legalize consensual sodomy.

Saturday, 22 October 2011

Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg is well-known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations. Rauschenberg was both a painter and a sculptor and the Combines are a combination of both, but he also worked with photography, printmaking, papermaking, and performance. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1993.

Rauschenberg's approach was sometimes called 'Neo-Dada', a label he shared with the painter Jasper Johns , with whom he had a long artistic and personal relationship.

Rauschenberg's oft-repeated quote that he wanted to work 'in the gap between art and life', suggested a questioning of the distinction between art objects and everyday objects reminiscent of the issues raised by the notorious 'Fountain' of Dada pioneer Marcel Duchamp. At the same time, Johns' paintings of numerals, flags, and the like, were reprising Duchamp's message of the role of the observer in creating art's meaning.

By 1962, Rauschenberg's paintings were beginning to incorporate not only found objects but found images as well - photographs transferred to the canvas by means of the silkscreen process. Previously used only in commercial applications, silkscreen allowed Rauschenberg to address the multiple reproducibility of images, and the consequent flattening of experience that that implies. In this respect, his work is exactly contemporaneous with that of Andy Warhol, and both Rauschenberg and Johns are frequently cited as important forerunners of American Pop Art.

In addition to painting and sculpture, Rauschenberg's long career has also included significant contributions to printmaking and Performance Art. He also won a Grammy Award for his album design of the Talking Heads album Speaking in Tongues.

Born this day:

British writer and poet and lover of Oscar Wilde. Bosie, as he was known to his friends, married Olive Cunstance in 1902 and they had a son, Raymond, that same year. The 1997 film 'Wilde' tells the story about his relationship with Oscar Wilde.

Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg is well-known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations. Rauschenberg was both a painter and a sculptor and the "Combines" are a combination of both. Rauschenberg's approach was sometimes called 'Neo-Dada', a label he shared with the painter Jasper Johns , with whom he had a long artistic and personal relationship.

Friday, 21 October 2011

Born this day:

Fred Sadoff (1926 - 1994) US Actor – Born 21st October Peter Mandelson, politician
During the last Labour government, Mandelson was one of the most powerful politicians in the UK - and openly gay,after being outed by the gay former MP Matthew Parris

Doeschka MeijsingDutch writer, born in Eindhoven. She won the AKO Literatuurprijs in 2000 for her novel "De tweede man", and in 2008 the Ferdinand Bordewijk Prize for her novel "Over de liefde" ("About Love").

Thursday, 20 October 2011

Born this day

Hans Warren (1921 - 2001)
Dutch poet, writer and literary critic, born in Borsele, whose full name was Johannes Adrianus Menne Warren. He published a an extended series of candid diaries of his life ans sexual experiences as a gay man in the Netherlands, including the early years when married and closeted, coming out, and later living and writing as openly gay. He is also notable for a fictionalized account of what it was like to be both Jewish and gay under Nazi occupation, in the novel "Secretly Inside".

Sodomy in History, October 20

1896 — The Iowa Supreme Court permits divorce on cruelty grounds due to one spouse’s violating a sodomy statute.

1941 — South African police are called in to quiet a disturbance at a gold mine caused by the dismissal of 122 miners for refusing to stop dances in which boys are squeezed and kissed.

1941 — The Arkansas Supreme Court rejects the request of a sodomy defendant to be sent to a hospital to determine his mental status.

Wednesday, 19 October 2011

Born this day:

Dmitri Ivanovich:Russian Czarevich
Also called Demetrius Ivanovich, son of Ivan IV and little brother of the Czar Fyodor I. Boris Godunov loved to fellate the boy, but then, after the death of Fyodor, Dmitri was murdered, possibly by order of Godunov, in order to gain the throne himself.

Patrick Cowley:American record-producer. He was born in Buffalo, New York and studied English at Buffalo's university. Cowley died of Aids.

Divine:Drag Queen, singer and actor, who was described by People magazine as the "Drag Queen of the Century". The fat fabulous drag queen, immortalized by director John Waters in such films as "Mondo Trasho", "Pink Flamingos", and "Female Trouble", once described himself as "just another man in a dress."

Robert Reed(1932 - 1992) US Actor, best known for "The Brady Bunch". Married and publicly closeted, he was nevertheless well-known as gay to colleagues on the series. He was HIV positive at the time of his death in 1992

Sodomy in History, October 19

1964 — Judge Allen O’Connor of Connecticut is accused of sex with a young man. He resigns and is disbarred.

1994 — A federal judge in New York follows case law in the state and dismisses a public indecency charge against a man for sex in the bushes. He said it couldn’t be seen by others.

1954 — David Trago, the elected sheriff of Jackson County, Ohio, is arrested on sodomy charges. He is a religious fundamentalist and the father of 13 children. The first trial ends in his acquittal, but later he is arrested again for attempting to have sex with a teenage male and is convicted and removed from office.

1981 — An Ohio appellate court sustains the libel verdict against Larry Hustler magazine for a satirical cartoon showing his rival, Penthouse publisher Robert Guccione, engaged in a "homosexual act."

Born in Arnhem. Miss Dales, a career politician and member of the Labor Party, was elected to Parliament in 1981, mayor of Nijmegen from 1987 to 1989, Deputy Minister for Social Affairs from 1981 to 1982, and Minister of Home Affairs 1989-1994.

Some sources claim that she was "often rumoured to be lesbian, and was finally outed after her death by the Dutch prime-minister Ruud Lubbers". However, a scholarly article about diversity management in Dutch employment practices, groups her with Pim Fortuyn and Boris Dittrich as prominent Dutch politicians who were open about their homosexuality.

Ien Dales (Dutch Labour Party, died in office in 1994), the late Pim Fortuyn (founder of the right- wing LPF Party, murdered in 2001) and Boris Dittrich (D66, Social–Liberal Party leader up to 2004) were all open about their homosexuality and championed equal rights for this group

Sunday, 16 October 2011

"Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world, there are only individuals."

Oscar Wilde gloried in flaunting his individuality during the Victorian Era, a period synonymous with social conformity and sexual repression.

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin to a mother who was a noted poet and Irish nationalist, and a father who was an eye surgeon. Wilde showed brilliance from an early age, winning prizes at school and university. At Magdalen College, Oxford Wilde adopted his signature flowing hair and flamboyant style of dress, openly scorned "manly sports," and decorated his rooms with peacock feathers and beautiful objects.

Wilde first became a public figure as a spokesman for the Aesthetic Movement, whose motto was "art for art's sake." After a lecture tour through the United States, where he met poet Walt Whitman, Wilde said that "America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between."

In 1892, the debut of his first play, Lady Windermere's Fan, introduced London theatergoers to such Wildean trademark witticisms as, "My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people's," and "I can resist anything but temptation." Wilde's plays sparkle with keenly observed satirical wit that punctures the stuffy pretenses of Victorian society.

A turning point in Wilde's life came in 1891 when Wilde, who was married and the father of two children, began an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, known as "Bosie," son of the Marquess of Queensbury. Infuriated by his son's involvement with Wilde, the Marquess instigated legal actions that ended with Wilde's conviction on a charge of gross indecency for "a love that dare not speak its name."

In April 1895, the night he was arrested for "indecent acts," Wilde's name was removed from the playbills outside theatres in London and New York where his hit plays "The Importance Of Being Earnest" and "An Ideal Husband" were playing.

Wilde was sentenced to two years' imprisonment at hard labor. He spent the last three years of his life in poverty and self-imposed exile. He died in Paris in 1900 at the age of 46, his life undoubtedly shortened by the rigors of imprisonment

The continued popularity of Wilde's plays and his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray,as well as numerous films and books about his life, have made him an icon of popular culture. His grave in Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris has become a pilgrimage site.

Born in Lawrence, Massuchusetts, Monette grew up in an upper-middle-class environment; educated at the Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, and at Yale University, where he gained a BA in 1967. He subsequently taught at the Milton Academy and at Pine Manor College before settling into the life of a writer.

After moving to Los Angeles in the 1970s, Monette wrote a number of gay-themed novels, including "Taking Care of Mrs. Carrol" and "The Gold Diggers." In 1985, his world was shattered by the death of his lover of ten years, Roger Horwitz, from AIDS-related illness. Monette produced a book of poetry, "Love Alone: 18 Elegies for Rog", and "Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir," which became a best-seller in 1988.

Initially closeted, and after futile attempts at heterosexuality, and falling in love with a man, he finally came out. When his longtime lover Roger Horwitz was diagnosed with AIDS and suffered from a variety of AIDS-related diseases, and finally died, he became an advocate of gay and lesbian rights, and an active supporter of ACT UP (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power).

Also Monette was diagnosed with AIDS in 1991, and died four yìears later of AIDS-related complications. Nonetheless, Monette's final years were filled with love (he formed long-term relationships with casting director Stepphen Kolzak, who died in 1990 also to AIDS related illness, and then with Winston Wilde), and were amazingly productive.

Paul Monette won the 1992 National Book Award for nonfiction with his autobiographical "Becoming A Man: Half A Life Story." Written after he found out he had AIDS, it is a powerful depiction of the subjects Monette knew best: the nature of the disease, the problems of being in the closet, and the potential in gay relationships.

The son of the prince (François) Eugène Maurice of Savoy-Carignano, he was born in Paris. When Louis XIV refused him to enter in his army (1683), he entered the Austrian Army, and served against the Turks at the defence of Vienna, and against the French on the Rhine and in Italy ten years later. In 1697 he expelled the Turks from Hungary by his triumph at Zenta.

In the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14) he shared with Marlborough in his great victories against the French (battles of Blenheim, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet), and won many successes as an indipendent commander in Italy. He again defeated the Turks in 1716-18, and fought a last campaign against the French in 1734-35. Napolen considered him as one of the seven great generals to whom the art of the war is due.

Prince Eugene of Savoy was the companion of Philippe, Duc d'Orleans the transvestite homosexual brother of Louis XIV. Eugene's sexual orientation was well known to his peers. He never married, and fellow officers referred to him as a "Mars without Venus." Eugene was particularly close to the Marquis de la Moussaye and a legend sprang up about an occurrence when they were at sea during a fierce storm. The Marquis assured the Prince that they were safe, since "We are sodomites destined to perish only by fire."

Friday, 14 October 2011

Born this day:

Benjamin Sumner Welles (1892 - 1961) American
Government official and diplomat in the Foreign Service. Bisexual, he was forced to resign after he was lured into paying for sex with two African American Pullman car porters.

Died this day:]

Leonard Bernstein, celebrated conductor and composer of West Side Story. A devoted husband and father, he was nevertheless undoubtedly gay, and had numerous well-documented sexual relationships and casual encounters with men, in his youth, during his marriage, and after his wife's death.

Errol Flynn, renowned ladies man - and rumoured bisexual. (Although rumours abound, he is not included on the extensive Wikipedia list of gay men and lesbians, which describes itself as "a referenced overview list of notable gay, lesbian or bisexual people, who have either been open about their sexuality or for which reliable sources exist".

Jamie Nabozny was the first student to successfully sue a school district for its failure to protect a student from anti-gay harassment. His 1995 lawsuit helped pioneer the Safe Schools Movement for GLBT students.

Sodomy in History, October 14

1927 — A California appellate court rules that corroborative evidence in crime against nature and oral copulation cases can be entirely circumstantial.

1941 — A newspaper reports that the Ohio Pardon and Parole Commission adopted a policy the previous year of requiring all males convicted of sex crimes to be sexually sterilized before release. The surgery performed leaves the men permanently impotent.

1986 — The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to review the decision of the Oklahoma Court of Appeals that the state’s sodomy law can not be enforced constitutionally against people of the opposite sex.

1986 — The Georgia Court of Appeals upholds a sodomy conviction even though the defendant claimed that what he was charged with doing was "anatomically impossible." The court does not detail the act.

1964 — At oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court, Chief Justice Earl Warren demands that Mississippi strike from its brief an allegation that civil rights defendant Aaron Henry had been arrested for sex with another man. Warren claims that Mississippi is "poisoning the mind of the Court and the nation."

1982 — The Maryland Court of Appeals overturns the disorderly conduct conviction of a man who said "Fuck You" to a police officer. The Court noted that the arrest was illegal unless the police officer would testify that he was sexually aroused at the thought of being fucked by another man.

2000 — The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a trial court and upholds an Alabama law banning sex toys.

October 14

1927 — A California appellate court rules that corroborative evidence in crime against nature and oral copulation cases can be entirely circumstantial.

1941 — A newspaper reports that the Ohio Pardon and Parole Commission adopted a policy the previous year of requiring all males convicted of sex crimes to be sexually sterilized before release. The surgery performed leaves the men permanently impotent.

1986 — The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to review the decision of the Oklahoma Court of Appeals that the state’s sodomy law can not be enforced constitutionally against people of the opposite sex.

1986 — The Georgia Court of Appeals upholds a sodomy conviction even though the defendant claimed that what he was charged with doing was "anatomically impossible." The court does not detail the act.

October 15

1918 — The Oregon Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction after the prosecutor made reference in the trial to the "past glories of Greece."

1963 — The Georgia Supreme Court overrules a 1917 precedent and holds that cunnilingus is not a violation of the sodomy law.

1975 — The North Carolina Court of Appeals rules that penetration is not necessary to complete an attempt to commit sodomy.

1998 — A federal judge strikes down Maryland’s "unnatural and perverted practices" law on broad privacy grounds and the state does not appeal.

October 16

1749 — North Carolina adopts the English sodomy law explicitly.

1943 — The Tennessee Supreme Court rules that fellatio is prohibited by the state’s "crime against nature" law, although the decision is neither published nor publicized.

1958 — The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a conviction for sodomy after the police entered without a warrant to search the defendant’s home.

Wednesday, 12 October 2011

Died this day:

Matthew Shepard

Sodomy in History, October 12

1984 — Congress enacts a law repealing the District of Columbia sexual assault reform law of 1981, that had included a repeal of the District’s sodomy law.

1988 — The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals clarifies that only "consensual, heterosexual" activity is constitutionally protected, preventing a more liberal decision of two weeks earlier from becoming precedent.